Hello everyone,
I would like to ask the Home Assistant community for feedback and possibly some help with an idea for a dashboard that could significantly simplify energy management in a home.
More and more houses today are equipped with different energy-related systems such as:
photovoltaic installations (PV)
home battery storage
various types of inverters
dynamic electricity tariffs
Home Assistant already provides many ways to integrate these systems, but in practice managing them often requires multiple automations, scripts and different dashboards. As a result, controlling the entire home energy system can become quite complex and difficult to manage.
My idea is to create one central dashboard that would allow users to manage and plan energy flows in the house in a much more intuitive and visual way.
The goal would be to have a single screen where users could plan how the system should behave throughout the day, for example:
when the battery should charge
when energy should be exported to the grid
when the house should prioritize self-consumption
when energy should be stored for later use
This becomes particularly important when using dynamic electricity tariffs, where energy prices can change significantly during the day.
The concept I have in mind is a dashboard based on a timeline interface, where the user could plan the energy strategy for the upcoming hours of the day, taking into account factors such as:
PV production forecast
electricity prices
battery state of charge
expected household consumption
In practice, such a dashboard could act as a simplified Energy Management System (EMS) within Home Assistant.
At this stage I am mainly looking for:
feedback from the community
ideas on how such a solution could be implemented in Home Assistant
people who might be interested in contributing to such a project
If the concept proves useful, I believe it would be worth designing it in a way that makes it as universal as possible, so it could work with many different:
PV inverters
battery systems
energy integrations available in Home Assistant
My vision is one screen that significantly simplifies energy management in the home, especially for users with PV systems, battery storage and dynamic electricity tariffs.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Concept of an Interface for Planning Home Energy Strategy
Let’s imagine a single screen that shows the entire day of energy management in a home.
Each column on the screen represents a time interval, for example 15 minutes. Looking vertically at such a column we could see at the same time: the electricity price, the forecasted PV production, the house energy consumption, the predicted battery state of charge, and the EMS decision about what should happen at that moment.
This way the entire day could be treated as a kind of map of the home’s energy strategy, instead of switching between several different screens and charts.
In this example I use 15-minute intervals because many dynamic tariffs use exactly this type of time resolution for electricity pricing. However, the concept itself is not limited to that.
The same interface could easily be adapted to other time intervals, for example hourly slots or even minute-level resolution. This would make the system flexible and adaptable to different tariff models, device control methods, and user preferences.
I am also writing this based on my own experience. At home I use a system consisting of PV panels, a home battery and a dynamic electricity tariff with prices changing every 15 minutes. In practice managing such a system means constantly looking at several different charts and pieces of information at the same time.
Because of this, I believe that creating an interface which allows users to see the entire day of energy management on one timeline and easily plan the strategy of the system could greatly improve everyday usage of these installations — not only for me but likely for many other users as well.
In my opinion many existing energy systems currently lack a tool that allows planning an energy strategy in time. The data is available, but it is difficult to see the full picture and intuitively decide what the system should do at a given moment.
This is why I started thinking about the concept of an interface that allows planning energy management based on one shared timeline.
One Timeline for the Entire Energy System
The core idea is a single shared timeline.
All elements of the home energy system are synchronized with this timeline:
- electricity prices
- PV production
- house energy consumption
- battery state of charge
- EMS decisions
Each vertical column represents one specific moment in time.
Looking at one column, the user could immediately see:
- what the electricity price is
- how much energy the PV system produces
- how much energy the house consumes
- what the battery level will be
- what decision the system will make
This way the entire day becomes a visual map of the home energy strategy.
Electricity Price as the Main Reference Point
The most important element of the interface is the electricity price chart.
In many cases the price determines the strategy:
- when it makes sense to charge the battery
- when it is better to use energy from the battery
- when energy should be exported to the grid
That is why the price chart is placed at the top and becomes the main reference point for the rest of the information.
PV Production and House Consumption
In the same visual area it is also possible to display:
- forecasted PV production
- forecasted house energy consumption
This allows the user to immediately see when excess energy will appear and when the house will need additional energy.
It helps to make more informed decisions about storing energy or exporting it.
Planning EMS Decisions
Directly below the timeline there are selectable fields that allow planning what the system should do during a given time slot.
Each slot corresponds to one time interval (for example 15 minutes).
In this area the user can decide what the system should do, for example:
- charge the battery
- keep energy in the battery
- supply the house from the battery
- export energy to the grid
- charge an electric vehicle
The idea here is not to control just one device, but to manage the energy flow of the entire home energy system.
For example, during one slot the situation could be:
PV energy powers the house
excess PV energy charges the battery
or:
the battery powers the house
excess energy is exported to the grid
In this way the user plans the energy flow logic of the house, not just the behavior of a single device.
Integration with AI
The system could also use an AI algorithm that proposes a daily strategy automatically.
AI decisions could appear in the interface as pre-selected slots.
All AI decisions could be marked with one background color, so the original plan of the system is always visible.
If the user decides to modify a slot manually, the change overrides the AI decision but the original AI suggestion remains visible.
This way the user can:
- trust the AI
- correct its decisions
- or gradually teach the system their own strategy.
Battery State of Charge Forecast
At the bottom of the interface there could be a chart showing the predicted battery level over time.
This chart could display:
- the battery level predicted by the AI strategy
- the battery level after the user modifications
This allows the user to clearly see how their decisions affect the battery level during the day.
System Information
On the left side of the interface there could be general system information that is not directly linked to the timeline.
For example:
- current battery level
- stored energy in the battery
- value of the stored energy based on current prices
- minimum and maximum electricity price of the day
- price spread between the cheapest and most expensive energy
This section helps to quickly understand the overall energy situation of the home.
Why Such an Interface Could Be Useful
The biggest advantage of this concept is that the user can see the entire energy strategy of the home in one place.
There is no need to switch between multiple screens or analyze separate charts.
A single screen would show:
- when electricity is cheap
- when PV production will occur
- when the battery will charge
- when energy will be exported to the grid
and the user could easily adjust the strategy if needed.
Final Thought
I am curious if others here also feel that something like this is missing today — a tool that allows planning the home energy strategy directly on a timeline.
Do you think such a concept could make sense in Home Assistant?